Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) shakes hands with his counterpart Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta (R) during a press conference at Victoria Palace, the seat of the Romanian Government in Bucharest on Monday. Photo: AFP

 

China Premier Li Keqiang and his Romania counterpart Victor Ponta agreed on Monday that their two countries would cooperate in building high-speed railways in Romania.

After their talks, the two leaders also witnessed the signing of series of cooperation agreements, covering such fields as trade, investment and telecommunication, as well as electricity generation, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Li arrived  Monday for a 3-day visit to Romania, marking China's first official visit to the country by a top leader in 19 years.

It also marks Li's first trip abroad after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee and his first visit to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since he took office in March.

During his 3-day visit to Romania, Li will attend a China-Central and Eastern Europe leaders' meeting in Romania's Bucharest on Tuesday as a guest of Victor-Viorel Ponta.

Li will have separate meetings with leaders from 16 CEE countries, attend a "1+16" round table meeting, as well as an economic and trade forum during the CEE meeting. He will express China's position on bilateral relations with CEE countries and announce important cooperation measures.

Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Monday that Li's visit aimed at demonstrating that the central government would continue to view the mutual relationship with CEE members as an important part of its diplomatic strategy.

China should put more effort into developing relationships with CEE members, which has huge potential in economic development, in order to develop the Sino-EU relationship, Zhao said, adding that that those documents will encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in CEE countries, including Romania.

Since the first China-CEE leaders' meeting held in Poland's Warsaw in 2012, China has sent more than 30 trade and investment delegations to CEE countries.

Li will attend the 12th prime ministers' meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states in Uzbekistan at the invitation of Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev, to discuss cooperation in an anti-terrorist campaign, after finishing the visit to Romania. The members states will also deepen  economic cooperation with each other. 

Sun Zhuangzhi, a research fellow with Chinese Academy of Social Science told the China News Service that the economic relationship should be enhanced ahead of politics and security issues.

Agencies contributed to the story